Are you an SFO?

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Boys and girls....
Merry Christmas to you all.....
Fill them as you see fit, BUT, take care of YOUR Family and customers FIRST!!...got 8 drivers waiting out back..gotta go!!
Luv ya all, peace to the rest!!
 
I suspended yesterday at about 1pm. I was at capacity for cities outside my own and everything that was coming through wire was either product I am sold out of or 3 cities away in a different direction than I am already going....It was taking me more time and costing me money to keep rerouting or rejecting the orders....

Have a wonderful Christmas all....Hope everyone bought and staffed on track and had a profitable holiday....
 
Dove was just suspended at 1 pm today. Waiting for my last driver to return now , at 3 pm.

We have rejected 25% (counted them to be sure!!) of the orders sent to us in December. the rejections were because: improperly priced products, incomplete addresses, with no phone #s (example -- order to Susie @ PNC Bank -- the bank has over 5,000 employees -- no dept name or anything!!),

the thing that is getting my goat this holiday season is the TF web orders -- why set up & sell to florists codified products, and then set up this whole web catalogue -- and push to the consumers only the web catalogue items? I just don't understand that one at all!! If we need a codified product that is cheap, then create one & push it!! But don't creat 2 sets of stuff that you expect us to staff up for & create instantously!

Just my personal rant today.....

Best wishes,
Cheryl
 
CHERYL BAKIN said:
the thing that is getting my goat this holiday season is the TF web orders -- why set up & sell to florists codified products, and then set up this whole web catalogue -- and push to the consumers only the web catalogue items? I just don't understand that one at all!! If we need a codified product that is cheap, then create one & push it!! But don't creat 2 sets of stuff that you expect us to staff up for & create instantously!

Just my personal rant today.....

Best wishes,
Cheryl
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OH OH OH I know Mrs Kotter........!

Its because of florists like me who only sell the holiday product that sells out every Christmas (aka Kincade) and for those flower shops that don't buy any of the WS Branded containers anymore.

Also, TF needs (and I think it is a good idea) to add some "somewhat generic Christmas arrangements to the the TF hosted websites. I can sort of envision that being a pain for large markets but for the small market it works.

I don't mind them dumping those TF WEB arrangements on me. I have to say I sold alot more of those than I did the "snow crystal" arrangement or the Gingerbread house or the....... OH wait I didn't buy any of those !!!!! ha ha ha. :)

joe
 
Joe Mioux said:
OH OH OH I know Mrs Kotter........!

Its because of florists like me who only sell the holiday product that sells out every Christmas (aka Kincade) and for those flower shops that don't buy any of the WS Branded containers anymore.

....... OH wait I didn't buy any of those !!!!! ha ha ha. :)

joe
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you had us going for a minute.....:blowkiss:
 
Joe Mioux said:
College students, but not too many in the same room at the same time.
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College kids in Long Island don't do those things, unless we pay AT LEAST $10/hr. We know, because that's what we did last year. I hired three college kids for Christmas last year... Two didn't show up. The one that showed up was a total disaster. She was able to green at a pace of one per hour. I kicked her out after three hours.

So this year was the first time we purchased pre-greened centerpieces. I figured it's actually cheaper this way than dealing with spoiled brats in Long Island, NY.
 
College students, but not too many in the same room at the same time.
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Very few college students in our town. And they mostly work at the mall.

I hope you would agreee that allowing a designer to green up baskets and vases is a really lousy way to spend high dollar design time.
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If it's part of the design, greening needs to be done right. And that's where skilled professionals come in. We stopped getting into the unprofitable $10.99 cheapo centerpiece pissing match several years ago, and have focused on orders with better profitability without killing ourselves.

Thats what family and friends do for us.
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Family owns another shop in another town, and have their own arrangements to do.

It doesn't take much training or skill to teach some one to green up a basket or a vase.
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Yes it does. It takes time to find a person willing to do it, time to train them, time to fill out all the crap paperwork to hire them, time to file the W2s, time to add them to our workman's comp, time to pay the unemployment, medicaid, social security taxes. Plus, you have to find space for them to work (an absolute premium in our shop).

I don't buy into that theory, sorry, as long as one keeps sending.
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You can't assuage your OG guilt by trying to turn us responsible florists into SFOs by redefining the term.
 
I found many many years ago that it does take some skill to green a Christmas Centerpiece so that we are able to plunk the flowers into a viable water source. Can't do that when the oasis is saturated with greens. Quit that option in 1984 or so.............
The only family I have left that can work with me are my 9 year old granddaughter and the almost 3 year old that really gets it...........others left for college many years ago............
I will probably never be an SFO cause my little town doesn't have enough money left after paying for gas, oil, and rent to send to places that have $45 minimums not counting delivery charges.............
And with that thought......Have a very happy day off before we start this madness all over again.............
 
YUP! Got my goat TOO!

CHERYL BAKIN said:
the thing that is getting my goat this holiday season is the TF web orders -- why set up & sell to florists codified products, and then set up this whole web catalogue -- and push to the consumers only the web catalogue items? I just don't understand that one at all!! If we need a codified product that is cheap, then create one & push it!! But don't creat 2 sets of stuff that you expect us to staff up for & create instantously!

Just my personal rant today.....

Best wishes,
Cheryl
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TOTO said:
We reached the HEIGHT of the problem in 1996 when the new FORE PROFIT DOT.CON company and Rock Davis (Marketplace) decided to inventory C1 through C9.

Only problem with their 800 and DOT.CON POS was in the fact that, THEY WERE NOT FOCUSED on SELLING the very HOLIDAY BRANDED PRODUCT we had bought from them.

Instead of FEATURING and SELLING the C1 through C9, they allowed their customers to pick out all other Christmas items which they HAD TOO MANY OF on their website.

And so, we were getting orders in for the CANDY CANE LANE BASKET (not a holiday branded).

When I called Rock and asked him WHAT THE HECK WAS GOING ON, his reply was that, the Candy Cane Lane Basket was very popular with their customers and their customers liked that price point. ($29.99)

OK Rock, then why didn't you folks make the Candy Cane Lane basket the C1 then? (DUH DUH DUH)

Well kids, I already knew the answer to that question.

Facts were that, how much money could they really make on selling WEE FLORISTS a white handled wicker basket?

That was the LAST HOLIDAY we would buy, stock, design, and then, take apart and put in our basement, hoping to sell some 12 months later.
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Seems like a NO BRAINER, doesn't it Cheryl. SELL the HOLIDAY BRANDED at your own POS when you've asked your own FLORISTS to buy it.

The assumption of course, is that, these folks in those ivory towers who earn the big bucks HAVE A BRAIN!

Sadly, they just can't seem to CONNECT DA DOTS, ey?

Then, they all have a BLUE SKY MEETING after the HOLIDAYS and wonder why THEIR FLORISTS didn't buy THEIR stuff.

OH, let MEE SEE HEAR Andy? Could it be that, you didn't even focus on SELLING your own BRANDED and while allowing YOUR CUSTOMERS to point and click on the 50 or 60 other Christmas images you OVERLOADED at your sites?
 
RJD said:
You can't assuage your OG guilt by trying to turn us responsible florists into SFOs by redefining the term.
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Please? I feel so guilty I just don't know if I can go on anymore.

That's it - I'm getting in there with the turkey.

legsoven.jpg
 
Crunch time is what separates the men from the boyz and the gurlz from da wimmen.

Not to mention the fair weather florists from the professional tenacious ones.


It's also where Preferred Florist Lists are built. One thing I love about our system is it not only shows reciprocity in and out, it also tracks rejections. It has a florist rating program whereby a certain number of complaints or rejections their status changes.

Yeah I know I'm the only one that cares about this - or and I the only one to admit it?
 
bloomz said:
Crunch time is what separates the men from the boyz and the gurlz from da wimmen.

Not to mention the fair weather florists from the professional tenacious ones.


It's also where Preferred Florist Lists are built. One thing I love about our system is it not only shows reciprocity in and out, it also tracks rejections. It has a florist rating program whereby a certain number of complaints or rejections their status changes.

Yeah I know I'm the only one that cares about this - or and I the only one to admit it?
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No, you are not the only one who cares about this....I try my hardest to not suspend and pride myself on how long I do keep it on as a one person shop. I also feel that if you are going to belong you should belong always, during the slow times when you need the work to carry you through and at the busy times when you really don't need it, but the orders need you...
 
bloomz said:
If you turn off your incoming machine on holidays and still send outgoing - how is this different from an SFO?
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It's a heck of a lot easier and more profitable to answer the phone, take an order and send it to another shop than it is to make and deliver an incoming. What you're seeing is florists getting smarter about finance and understanding that incomings overwhelm capacity and diminish profits.

When the balance of profits is more reasonable on the fulfillment side, maybe you'll see more machines left on.

We also both know big fillers that fall apart on the holidays. Better they shut off the Merc or Dove, letting us know to go elsewhere, than make us deal with complaints later.

Our shop has it easier than most stores since we have access to qualified trainees, but most don't have the luxury of finding decent extra design help on the holidays. Temps often do work below the everyday quality of a store and can harm rather than help a shop's reputation, long term.

You can also blame the shut off on dOGs. I spoke with several shops this week that turned off Merc or Dove because they were simply tired of wasting too much time sending FORs or REJs of undersold orders.
 
CHR said:
It's a heck of a lot easier and more profitable to answer the phone, take an order and send it to another shop than it is to make and deliver an incoming. What you're seeing is florists getting smarter about finance and understanding that incomings overwhelm capacity and diminish profits.

When the balance of profits is more reasonable on the fulfillment side, maybe you'll see more machines left on.

We also both know big fillers that fall apart on the holidays. Better they shut off the Merc or Dove, letting us know to go elsewhere, than make us deal with complaints later.

Our shop has it easier than most stores since we have access to qualified trainees, but most don't have the luxury of finding decent extra design help on the holidays. Temps often do work below the everyday quality of a store and can harm rather than help a shop's reputation, long term.

You can also blame the shut off on dOGs. I spoke with several shops this week that turned off Merc or Dove because they were simply tired of wasting too much time sending FORs or REJs of undersold orders.
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That was the one and only reason I shut off the machines. It was taking me more time to forward and reject the rediculous orders that come through last minute with no second choices, 3-5 cities away, no delivery charge, etc.. I did take more orders from real florists that called them to me with realistic expectations.
 
bloomz said:
Crunch time is what separates the men from the boyz and the gurlz from da wimmen.

Not to mention the fair weather florists from the professional tenacious ones.
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I don't think it's that simple. If you were in FL before Mother's day or Manhattan before Valentines day I think your view would change.
 
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bloomz said:
Crunch time is what separates the men from the boyz and the gurlz from da wimmen.

Not to mention the fair weather florists from the professional tenacious ones.
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Spoken like a guy who considers his labor to be a fixed cost since the staff doesn't have enough to do!
 
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